Martha Vautrot greets and jokes with customers, including Jefferson County Sheriff Deputy Lovett, as they arrive for lunch at Vautrot's Cajun restaurant on its grand reopening Tuesday. The popular Bevil Oaks eatery was destroyed during Tropical Storm Harvey and operated out of a food truck while building a new restaurant. Photo taken Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020 Kim Brent/The Enterprise less

Martha Vautrot greets and jokes with customers, including Jefferson County Sheriff Deputy Lovett, as they arrive for lunch at Vautrot's Cajun restaurant on its grand reopening Tuesday. The popular Bevil Oaks ... more

Photo: Kim Brent / The Enterprise

Photo: Kim Brent / The Enterprise

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Martha Vautrot greets and jokes with customers, including Jefferson County Sheriff Deputy Lovett, as they arrive for lunch at Vautrot's Cajun restaurant on its grand reopening Tuesday. The popular Bevil Oaks eatery was destroyed during Tropical Storm Harvey and operated out of a food truck while building a new restaurant. Photo taken Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020 Kim Brent/The Enterprise less

Martha Vautrot greets and jokes with customers, including Jefferson County Sheriff Deputy Lovett, as they arrive for lunch at Vautrot's Cajun restaurant on its grand reopening Tuesday. The popular Bevil Oaks ... more

Jefferson County commissioners made the right call in voting for a 50% pay raise for at least the next two weeks for all county employees who face a higher risk of coming into contact with someone infected by the coronavirus. We hope that can be matched by all cities and counties in the region, but that may not be financially possible.

Jefferson County is hoping that it will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for these costs, though commissioners believe they can cover the expense even if the feds don’t come through. But FEMA’s help here is not guaranteed, and if every public taxing entity in the country did this, the total costs would obviously run into the billions. This is coming at a time when the federal government is spending — well, actually borrowing — countless billions just to keep our economy from collapsing during this crisis.

Some mayors and public officials are wondering if their jurisdictions can match this pay raise. Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bill Bartie said the City Council does not have plans to do something like this, though he didn’t rule it out. Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames said the City Council would need a recommendation from the city manager and some hard numbers before considering a pay boost.

Cities, counties and school districts must also deal with the financial uncertainty that average residents are going through now. No one knows how long these stay-at-home orders will last and how quickly our economy can rebound once they are lifted. Sales tax receipts will undoubtedly fall for a few weeks (or months) and of course many workers have been laid off. They will be scaling back their spending until their jobs return, which means less money rippling through our regional economy.

In conditions like this, public officials must watch every tax dollar. No one is going to want a tax hike next year to recover from this disruption since personal and business budgets are affected by it, too.

For now, however, Jefferson County’s deputies, dispatchers, jailers, etc., deserve this gesture. They are used to taking risks on their jobs, but this is different. The virus is invisible. They never know if the person they are dealing with is exhaling it onto them. But their jobs are absolutely vital, so they show up every shift and pray they are spared another day. County taxpayers hope they will be, and they are profoundly grateful for their service.